Graphic designers have a long history of engagement with activism for social good, and universities have a proud tradition of preparing students not only for careers but for a life as an aware participant in society. Sadly, statistics about voter registration and voting show that too many people, especially young adults, are not actively engaged. With those facts in mind, three faculty members collaborated through teaching a similar problem on voter awareness to start the academic year at their university, agreeing to share files and create exhibitions at each site.

Lisa Fontaine (Iowa State), RJ Thompson (Youngstown), and Jan Conradi (Rowan) worked with their design students to question and conceptualize responses to key questions. Why is voter turnout low? Why do people profess to care about election results, but not care about voting? What can be done to increase voter participation, particularly for young voters? The works in these exhibitions convey energy and commitment to participatory democracy — hopefully making a difference before the November election.

Students were encouraged to research bipartisan perspectives. Opinions reflected in this work only represent the individual artist.